when the dems screwed Hillary, they screwed america out of health care and out of jobs. I knew it. I told you so. I got so sick to my stomach as I watched forty years of the work of women get washed down the drain by axelrod and emmanuel and dean, richardson kerry and kennedy.

When Oprah, who knows nothing about politics and who never in twenty years did one show on the subject, put the final nail in the coffin of the health care candidate, i was stunned. I lost my faith in everything, including God. I had seen the dismantling of the working class since 1980, and had fought against it so hard, doing everything i could, and using everything at my disposal. I thought, how can an entire generation of feminism die right when the hope for it was at its strongest. I pleaded with friends not to back Obama. I said, but you know Hillary is the health care candidate, and he has not even a plan for any kind of healthcare in his platform or in his campaign! I blogged every day on the subject for about a year.

I knew the phony progressive left was just a trick of Soros and billionaire criminals to take down health care. I knew Obama got more wall street money than any other candidate, and I knew he was a phony too, all the way, as I watched him snicker about Hillary, the woman’s candidate being “likable enough”. I didn’t like her vote on Iraq, but she promised to end the war, and I believed that she would. I knew that she would listen to women, not completely abandon them as Obama has done. I knew that she would listen to working people, before bankers, unlike what Obama has done.

They set her up like they always set up women, and after we do all the groundwork, they take it away, and then they divide the spoils between themselves and their old boy network. Now, it is all coming clear to all the idiots that the wrong person is in the white house. Another George Bush. He has not saved one home from foreclosure nor created one job. He just wants to get down on his knees in front of those republicans and grovel, and HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE TO!

They triangulated race and class AGAIN!! They may have token black people in congress and the senate and the supreme court, and elsewhere, but they have never ever in this history of this country had ONE token poor person in anything.

Class, not race is our real national nightmare. Race and gender are second and third. Damn, so close to single payer and real change, now so far. My God, India has had more women at the top of its government by about 5X than we have.

From Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 MV

A time to mourn, a time to gather stones together:

It’s a time to fight.

——————————————————————————————————-

Perhaps it is because we at Big Pink were alone for so long throughout all of 2007 that we see things today through Pink colored glasses. But what is it with all the stupid depression these days?

Perhaps it is because one month into our existence we were under direct attack from Peggy Noonan, and Tim Russert himself attacked us on his creepy Sunday show, and rigged emails were sent to us from Politico and TechPresident, and there was a ceaseless campaign to destroy this website with hacks and phony Patricia/Wonk websites dedicated solely to attack us and our commentors, and the creeps at DailyKooks demanded our destruction, and Donna Brazile was emailing Hillary to take us down – that we see things through Pink colored glasses.

As we approach yet another anniversary this April we see how much we have advanced. We have many Hillary websites with many viewpoints online now. Back in 2007 we were alone. Today, we have Republicans fighting sexism and misogyny even if it is in their own self-interest (the best politics). Back in 2007 we were alone, and Obama and his thugs, along with Republicans (exception from some like, oddly, Pat Buchanan) indulged in daily sexism and misogyny.

Today, an attack on Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin or women gets a quick response from Hillary sites. Back in 2007, Youtube was an Obama attack machine against Hillary Clinton. Today, Youtube is an arsenal of explosives documenting Obama lies.

Back in 2007 we were alone in describing Obama as a thug and boob and a corrupt circus clown from Corrupt Chicago surrounded by corrupt circus clowns from Chicago. Today, all the narratives we created are routinely repeated.

Back in 2007 some Republicans bought into the Obama lies. Today, these Republicans are embarrassed if not yet totally Hopium free. Back in 2007 Dimocrats waited for the comet to join the celestial choirs and sing praises to Mess-iah Obama. Today, these Dimocrats at least suspect they were duped by the Dimocratic establishment into support for a stooge who makes George W. Bush look good. So what’s with the depression these days?

We’re not referring to the departed or the departing. People like our commentors “S” and “JanH” have family heartbreaks to deal with and they rightly need to take a leave from the battlefield in order to tend to the family fields. Even the most intrepid soldiers deserve, and need, a little R&R. There is no shame to recharge. There is not even shame in retreat (ask George Washington and Winston Churchill).

We are in Winter quarters waiting for the political Spring and the “muster” command. Waiting can be difficult. But let’s remember the mission. Puma Eyes has the eyes on the prize and remembers the mission:

Remember the mission. So what, if the cleanup job requires us to sweep out Dimocrats along with Republicans. Good riddance to all. There’s a job to be done.

Another thing that has been bothering me is that I really wanted to be wrong about Obama but I wasn’t, and saying “I told you so” doesn’t make up for having my worst nightmares become true. If anything, he’s even worse than I feared.

But what really has me bummed out right now is the realization that there is no end in sight for the mess this country is in. The single biggest problem facing our nation is the illness in our political system. When I say “illness” I mean the equivalent of an inoperable cancer that has metastasized. If we fixed our political system then we would actually be able to do something about those other problems.

For most of my adult life I believed that the Democrats were the good guys so even when they were getting slapped around by the Republicans I could support them and hope that after the next election they would grow a pair and start standing up for the liberal ideals they campaigned on.

I finally realized that the majority of the Democrats who hold elected office are not only corrupt but they have the same agenda as the Republicans. Oh, the say they’re on our side, and when it’s time for them to represent us they might make some speeches andr play some parliamentary tricks but when the nitty meets the gritty they lose on purpose. Lots of times they don’t even bother to put on a dog and pony show anymore, they just vote to bail out Wall Street or take away our civil rights as if that’s what we wanted them to do.

Now as far back as I can remember the Republicans were corrupt and they tended to be pricks or assholes, and sometimes both, but they weren’t insane. Nowadays there’s a lot of GOPers that are crazy as shithouse rats. That not only includes the elected ones but the voters too. Then you got the tea baggers who don’t think the Republicans are crazy enough.

On the left side they’re getting just as bad, they’re just insane about different things. If you read both the left and right blogs on a regular basis you’d think think they inhabit completely different worlds. It’s almost like they don’t speak the same language.

Next fall we’re gonna have and election and right now it looks like the Republicans will gain seats in Congress, and maybe even get control of one or both houses. But no matter who wins, we lose. The same thing in November of 2012. – If either the Democrats or Republicans win, we’re screwed.

We’re not going to say “cheer up”. We are not even going to argue with the sentiments expressed even though we disagree with some of them and agree with some of them. What we will say is a Warholian “so what”? It’s a struggle, so what? It’s a mess, so what?

The boy and his sister had a tough day. They waited, organized, called out. They fought back in the only way they could.

We’re strapping on our Pink grenades every morning and getting into the fight. If we get depressed amid the lunacy, we’ll say “so what?” We’re in the middle of a fight not at the end of one. The time for hammock swings and Pink lemonade is not yet here.

We might not like it but we realize that the Tea Party people for now are allies. So we will not disparage them as “teabaggers”. Politics makes strange bedfellows and these are strange times. We have learned that we do need two parties in opposition to each other, and other parties to live and die in order to keep those two parties in check and to let the major opposition parties know our votes cannot be taken for granted.

We might not like it but we realize that there are two choices: live or die. We’re not going to die and go away. We’ll live to fight another day.

We might not like it but we realize we are not alone in our opposition now and will not be alone in attaining our goals later. Our partners will change but we are not alone any more.

We might not like it but we realize that we were correct all along about Obama and his thug machine and his situation comedy demographics coalition. The ones who should be in deep depression and shame are Obama supporters who allowed themselves to be duped by the Dimocratic establishment and elect a stooge.

The Obama Dimocrats are forced to rabid tricks (such as the Slaughter Rule) to pass the Senate version of the Obama health scam, without a vote. It’s almost like the Democratic nomination – no vote is respected, mob rule Chicago rules.

136 thoughts on “Depressed Democratic Hillary Supporters”

You bet I’m gonna stay and fight. I know a class war when i see one and Obama and Bush, and their respective supporters, are trying to rob me of my ability to retire and my son’s ability to stay stable. I’m gonna fight that stuff to the bitter end.

We’ve got new generals our leaders are new
They sit and they argue and all that they do
Is sell their own colleagues and ride upon their backs
And jail them and break them and give them all the axe
Screaming in language that no one understands
Of the rights that we grabbed with our own bleeding hands
When we wiped out the bosses and stormed through the wall
Of the prison they told us would outlast us all
Barack, we’re poor
And the poor stay poor
Barack, don’t make
Us wait anymore
We want our rights and we don’t care how
We want our revolution now!

We just received an email which fits into what we wrote. For those that knew Granny D, the grandmother who walked coast to coast to fight for campaign finance, we have sad news:

Dear Friends —

It is with saddened heart that I bring you the news that Granny D passed away this afternoon. She took a turn for the worse on Sunday and has, at her own wish, been in palliative care since. The press was notified a short while ago.

Meanwhile she would want us to let you know personally of this before you hear or see it via the media. Please do know too how grateful for each and all of you she was. At this time I know we not only share feelings of emptiness in losing her, great joy in having known her, and also of a deep obligation to continue the good work that she inspired in us and so many others.

Whether you agreed or disagreed with Granny D, she fought. She got out there every day. She fought. We salute her and most especially her fighting spirit which did not falter with age.

If nothing else, Doris “Granny D” Haddock was a fighter. From 1999 to 2000, when she was 89, she walked 3,200 miles across 12 states, fighting for campaign finance reform and against emphysema and arthritis along the way. She kept up the fight until her death March 9, 2010, at her home in Dublin, N.H. She died at the age of 100.

It has been a long and often depressing road since the evening BO won Iowa. Nonetheless, I am so grateful I found this site as I was posting on Huff-N-Puff and it was awful. The admin. and posters have been a great source of inspiration and I intend to be here for the long haul.

I don’t know what the future holds. My wish is for all their shenanigans to catch up with them and each including Obama pays for what they did. But then again, life is unfair and the world is crooked, bad people thrive and go their merry way (even in my own life, :)). I hope somebody drags all the skeletons out of Obama’s closet like he did with everyone of his competitors. Karma, that is what I want. For Hillary, 2012 is probably it. I have never been so disappointed as I am with the election outcome in ’08. I had high expectations of this country’s electorate and for its democracy.

I think, yesterday, I posted a notation mentioning the Republicans are the best policy wonks on the planet… well here goes:
___________________________________

GOP Senators Unite Behind Strategy To Bleed Reconciliation To Death

Greg Sargent

Looks like the entire Senate GOP caucus is all in on the strategy to bleed reconciliation to death with the “Byrd rule.”

I first reported here the other day that anonymous Senate GOP aides had developed a strategy to stall or derail reform: Invoke the “Byrd rule” to strip individual provisions out of the reconciliation fix, forcing it back to the House for new votes countless times.

For a refresher on that, go here.

Well, now the Senate GOP leadership is doubling down on the strategy, saying publicly that the entire GOP caucus is united behind it. All 41 GOP Senators have signed a letter to Harry Reid pledging to use this tactic:

In that regard, to endeavor to ensure that the reconciliation process is not used to fast-track an unpopular bill through Congress, we wish to inform you that we will oppose efforts to waive the so-called Byrd Rule during Senate consideration of any reconciliation bill concerning health reform. The Byrd Rule, as you know, was created by Senator Byrd to ensure that reconciliation bills were not used to enact policy changes, the primary purpose of which is not specifically related to the federal budget. As it takes 60 votes to waive the Byrd Rule, we can ensure that any provision that trips the Byrd Rule will be stripped from the bill, which will require that the bill be sent back to the House for further consideration and additional votes.

This is a pretty striking move. There’s some debate about how effective this strategy will prove. GOP aides insist that Dems will not be able to craft a reconciliation bill that’s bulletproof. Some Dems privately express similar concerns, while others think whoever is chairing the proceedings — Joe Biden, perhaps — will be able to brush aside these procedural cobwebs.

But given the murkiness of Senate procedure, this doesn’t seem like something one can be certain about either way. And the question is whether this will succeed in spooking House Dems into believing the reconciliation fix will fail, leading them to be even more reluctant to pass the Senate bill in the first place. Full letter here.

Right on, admin. People are depressed but we must fight on. I am tired, too but I will never give up. You are right, it is time to depress the Obama enablers and supporters. These people need to be held accountable. The Nutkooks are now saying that Kucinich is their next target. What a bunch of idiots. Pink has never been my favorite color but I love it now thanks to you. Fight on!

By the time the two men sat down to dinner with their radiant wives in Jerusalem, the goodwill had turned to ashes in their mouths.

There can scarcely have been a sharper change in tone in the diplomatic history of two close allies over the course of a single day.

Mr Biden had begun declaiming America’s “absolute” support for Israel.

Minutes later there was an announcement that 1,600 new homes would be built in an Ultra-Orthodox enclave of Arab East Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu pleaded ignorance and spun that he had been blindsided by extremists in his coalition, who control the interior ministry.

American officials exploded with range. The vice-president arrived 90 minutes late for dinner. A statement said the decision was calculated to destroy the indirect proximity talks Washington was about to launch between Israel and the Palestinians.

Obama Tacitly Admits That He Is A Pariah And That The Dimorats Are Screwed In 2010
(Eric Erickson)

Here’s a dirty little secret in American politics. A lot of the reporters who cover politics don’t know the first thing about politics. They cannot read the tea leaves. They do not know how. They do not even try.

That is why men like Larry Sabato, Chuck Todd, etc. have become so prominent. It is not hard to figure things out, but a lot of reporters are lazy. They need the story spoon fed to them.

There is a massive story out there right now and the political reporters have totally missed it. Let me spoon feed them and educate everyone in the process.

Barack Obama has become the first major Democrat to admit, though tacitly, the Democrats are screwed in 2010.

All you have to do is look to Missouri.First, let me explain what a “joint fundraising committee” is. This is a committee whereby a political organization can link to a political campaign and the two entities can raise money together, sharing both the expenditures and receipts. The fundraising committee typically benefits the organization more than the candidate, but in every case the organization has a vital role to play in the election of the candidate so it makes sense for the candidate to sign on.

For example, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has a joint fundraising committee with Carly Fiorina. Senator Jim DeMint has a joint fundraising committee with Marco Rubio. It is a mutually beneficial relationship.

One would think the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (”DSCC”) would have a joint fundraising committee with Robin Carnahan, running against Roy Blunt in Missouri. And one would think they would use Barack Obama as the front man for the joint fundraiser.

If one thinks that, one would be wrong.

Today in Missouri, Barack Obama spoke at the fundraiser organized by the joint fundraising committee of the DSCC and sitting United States Senator Claire McCaskill — a woman not up for re-election.

At this event, Robin Carnahan, the 2010 Democratic Senate candidate in Missouri, was no where to be seen.

It goes downhill from there:

The president’s visit is also raising eyebrows because his evening fundraiser is slated to benefit Sen. Claire McCaskill, who doesn’t stand for re-election until 2012.

“We are not aware of another example of the president ignoring a U.S. Senate candidate on the ballot in less than eight months and instead raising money for someone who is not up for re-election until 2012,” noted [a Republican].

Democrats point out that Obama’s fundraising will also benefit the party’s Senate campaign committee, which could be used to aid Carnahan.

“Some of the funds raised should indirectly help Robin in her race,” Zakula said.

But when asked why Obama was raising money for McCaskill rather than Carnahan, Zakula responded, “that’s a question for the White House.” He also could not say whether Obama would campaign with Carnahan this fall.

Note the “could” and the “should.” It’s not sounding too definite for Robin.

Here’s where it gets odd. According to McCaskill’s campaign, a “large” chuck will go to benefit Carnahan’s campaign.

So where is the disconnect? Carnahan does not show up on stage with Barack Obama at his big event and Barack Obama raises money at a McCaskill fundraiser and not a Carnahan fundraiser. To top it all off, the joint fundraising committee is between the DSCC and a senator not even up for re-election?!

If we apply the easiest explanation for all of this, we arrive at the answer.

Obama has campaigned for three statewide candidates in the past four months only to see each one of them go down in flames. At the end of the day, politics is about the survival of the fittest and Barack Obama sees where things are headed.

Obama’s refusal to be seen with Carnahan or to raise money for Carnahan is a sign that Robin Carnahan is toast. Obama does not want to have another victim on the tally sheet. He does not want to get blamed.

Now here is why this is so important.

In Texas, Rick Perry is the longest serving Governor in Texas history. He was just able to beat the popular senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, by running an entire campaign against Washington.

In Missouri, Robin Carnahan, the state’s Secretary of State, is running against Congressman Roy Blunt, a man who has been in Washington for twelve years and is a Republican — a party everyone including myself points out polls worse than Democrat even in Missouri.

Carnahan should be able to do like Rick Perry and run a race against Washington and against the Republicans. Except she can’t. Her party owns Washington. And because her party owns Washington and Barack Obama owns the party, Robin Carnahan is screwed.

Barack Obama knows it. He’s trying to stay away lest political reporters finally start paying attention like the rest of us and realize Barack Obama is exactly what I said he was — Barack Obama is now a social pariah and most Democrats and he knows it.

So do Democrats really want to pass a health care plan so closely connected with a man who himself tacitly admits those he campaigns for go on to lose?

Mrs. Smith, There ya go. I been trying to find this out..Thanks!
#
Jen the Michigander
March 10th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
______________________________

PK is beginning to sound unhinged. I can appreciate the outrage but where was he a year ago when he was fist pumping the same press covering for Obama. PK is going to have another rude awakening a personal one- No title, No name, No Importance, a “nobody” to his former socio-political allies.

The youngsters are protesting on college campuses because of the hike in tuition, wait until the rest of us feel it, it will be BAD….There’s no way Hillary is part of this, she campaigned for more student loans with cheaper interests! This is being run by somefolks that are bigger than the D’s or the R’s.

Photo by: AP Ashton: EU’s position precarious in new world order
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
10/03/2010 18:41

European security affairs chief warns countries with weak governance are pulling their economic weight, creating “geopolitical ramifications.”
Talkbacks (4)
BRUSSELS — The European Union must do more to defend its interests and values as power seeps from the West to emerging economies in the eastern and southern hemispheres, Catherine Ashton, the EU’s security affairs chief, said Wednesday.

She said the new world order holds prominent spots for rising economic powerhouses such as China and India and energy-rich nations in Africa and the Caucasus.

“If we pull together, we can safeguard our interests,” Ashton told the European Parliament. “If not, others will make decisions for us.”

Europe must not believe it can remain “an island of stability and prosperity in a sea of insecurity and injustice,” she added.

Ashton took office in December as head of the EU foreign policy office. She was selected by the EU leaders whose choice — Ashton was EU trade commissioner — has been criticized as weak in her first three months in the job.

Ashton scoffed at that, saying she already has visited Washington, Moscow, Kiev, the Balkans and Haiti and will go to the Middle East next week.

Her lengthy address to the EU assembly in Strasbourg, France, was the first in which she outlined a vision for the EU and the risks the 27-nation bloc runs in the new world order.

Ashton said globalization means the EU must deal with countries that have weak governance across the board yet brim with self-confidence because of their new economic weight.

“You feel it everywhere,” she said.

“From negotiations on climate change to Iran, to big energy deals in Africa or Central Asia. Think of the rise of China and others as major political players. Or consider the political impact of the financial crisis. The debts are in the West, the surpluses in the East.”

Ashton said China’s new financial clout is shaping political relations with Beijing. Similarly, she said, climate change is not just an environmental problem but one with “security and geopolitical ramifications.”

She said the EU must use all its “levers of influence” from political and economic outreach to development aid and, as a last resort, crisis management through peacekeeping troops.

She suggested it create its own headquarters for military missions — that today involve 70,000 troops worldwide. The EU now uses NATO or national military headquarters.

Key to more EU engagement with the world is a new EU diplomatic service Ashton is currently shaping, but that has become a source of friction. The European Commission, the EU executive, fears it will take away some of its roles.

“This is a moment to see the big picture,” Ashton said. “If we get it right … we will be able to shape a European foreign policy for the 21st century with an external service designed to achieve that.”

Great article.
Depression is the natural next phase after denial ,anger and bargaining in the grieving process. Next up is acceptance which doesn’t mean that we just swallow whatever the dims want it just means we accept that the Democratic party as we knew it is now dead.
Kudos as always to you admin as your beacon is most needed now.

WASHINGTON — Is President Obama losing his base?
Liberal and progressive organizations that helped propel him to the White House are turning on him now, little more than a year after he took office. Their collective discontent, on issues from health care to nuclear energy to the handling of terrorism suspects, could mean bad news for Democrats during this fall’s congressional elections.

Polls show that liberals and blacks still approve of the job Obama’s doing. That approval, however, doesn’t necessarily mean they will make the effort to vote, and many of the activists and groups that worked to get people to the polls in 2008 say they’re not inclined right now to help Democrats in the fall.

“The energized base which transformed the nation and elected our first black president (is) now disengaged,” Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile says. “If this was September, I would hit the panic button.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs routinely brushes off questions about whether Obama and the Democrats are losing key constituencies, but he says the notion that the president is taking liberals for granted is “silly.”

Still, signs of trouble for the Democratic majority in Congress are springing up in:

•Virginia, where a host of liberal groups are rallying supporters and students to protest the upcoming University of Virginia appearance of former Bush administration top Justice Department official John Yoo.

Yoo, who wrote the legal memos authorizing the use of controversial interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects, will speak at the school in Charlottesville on March 19. He will be greeted by protesters, from groups such as Veterans for Peace and the National Accountability Network, who are angry that the Obama administration has declined to prosecute him for the so-called torture memos.

Organizer David Swanson calls the administration’s positions on protecting state secrets and war crimes “a disaster.”

The American Civil Liberties Union concurs. The group recently warned the White House not to reverse its decision to try terror suspects in civilian courts.

If Obama has suspects tried before military commissions, “he will betray his campaign promise to restore the rule of law, demonstrate that his principles are up for grabs and lose all credibility with Americans who care about justice and the rule of law,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero says.

•Georgia and South Carolina, where the environmental group Friends of the Earth (FOE) this month ran TV ads denouncing the Obama administration’s decision to approve $55 billion in private industry loan guarantees for what would be the first nuclear reactors built in the United States in three decades.

The group also was alarmed when Obama talked in his State of the Union Address about investing in “clean coal” and opening new offshore oil drilling, spokesman Nick Berning says.

FOE’s political arm endorsed candidate Obama, but “we’ve been disappointed so far with President Obama,” Berning says.

•Arkansas, where liberal groups are backing Lt. Gov. Bill Halter in a primary challenge to two-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, who is backed by Obama.

In three days earlier this month, the liberal group MoveOn.org raised $1 million for Halter, in average donations of $30. He also nabbed the endorsement of the Arkansas AFL-CIO. “This overwhelming response to Bill Halter’s candidacy shows the depth of voters’ anger towards corporate politicians,” MoveOn Director Justin Ruben says.

A chief complaint against Lincoln: She opposed including a government-run health care program, known as the public option, in legislation that passed the Senate in December.

Polls show those who represent a significant chunk of Obama’s base still back him. Although the samples are small and the margins of error high, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll in January found that nearly nine in 10 blacks approve of the job Obama’s doing, as do more than seven in 10 liberals.

Regardless, a growing number of liberal groups and activists say they’ve had enough of Democrats who break their promises or cater to conservatives.

“The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is now in shock,” says longtime Democratic activist-turned-blogger Chris Bowland, 52, of Santa Rosa, Calif. “It’s very clear the party hates us and has no respect for its base.”

Bowland, who this month changed his party registration to the Green Party, says the Democrats are going to pay for it at the polls in November.

“Who is it that shows up to man your phone banks and who goes knocking on your doors? Unions and left-wing activists like me,” he says. But Obama has broken his campaign promises and now, “we’ve had it. I’m done.”

Republican pollster Frank Luntz says the angst on Obama’s left is sure to benefit the GOP.

“It’s the perfect storm” for Obama, he says. “All the conservative groups are coalescing out of anger and all the liberal groups are disappearing out of anger. If he moves to satisfy one, he destroys himself with the other. … He’s in a really tough spot.”

Brazile says there’s time to repair the damage and re-energize liberal activists. “Will it be a tough spin? You betcha,” she says. “But I do think President Obama and the party will be up to the task.”

The thug narrative serves as an echo of the all too familiar atmosphere prevalent at the Dem Convention in Denver when Hillary delegates and their families were threatened by Obama thugs with beatings, financial destruction and death if their votes weren’t registered for Obama. Obama thugs are behaving as domestic terrorists manipulating and threatening the people’s elected levers daring to do their jobs for their constituency. Hopefully, your brave bold statements, Admin, will be the inspiration journalists kicking their KOOL-AID addiction using what they have learned from you to pay it forward three times three encouraging the fence sitters to jump in…

Well, I’m certainly not depressed and I dug in as a PUMA for the long haul quite a while ago; but that doesn’t mean I’m getting my hopes up for a Hillary 2012 bid. The way I see it, it’s either 2016 or never.

Well, I’m certainly not depressed and I dug in as a PUMA for the long haul quite a while ago; but that doesn’t mean I’m getting my hopes up for a Hillary 2012 bid. The way I see it, it’s either 2016 or never.
______________________

I’m not depressed either. I’m hoping for the WOO. Window of Opportunity arriving upsetting the balance of conventional thinking. An example would be Obama resigning, taking a position as the president of the UN, Biden moving up a notch and picking Hillary as his VP.

My figurative dread is enduring another yr long campaign only to be blindsided by another dirty trick engineered by master thieves running the BO campaign.

Questions of constitutionality are starting to emerge. Also, the parliamentarians have been compromised. possibly through bribery. At a minimum they need to be recused. Notice how big media is silent on all this. The corruption here runs very deep. Ladies and gentlemen: this is what a dictatorship looks like and as his hero Reagan used to say you aint seen nothing yet. If you re read those Merrill Lynch articles I posted you will see exactly where he is taking the country–off the cliff. That is a matter of great concern because there is nothing we can do to stop it in the short term. Will there be a constitutional challenge (which is why he attacked the Supreme Court in the SOU speech–to prevent them from invalidating programs that violate the constitution and sink the country). Assuming it even gets to the Supreme Court, which at this point appears unlikely (because the republicans do not want to do anything to tarnish their image going into the fall election–party first, etc.) It has been clear to me at least that this reconcilation thing is a ruse, and that the game is in the House of Representatives. I do not think the bill will get back to the senate. This time there will be no Republican defections, with the possible exception of the Congressman in Louisiana, but my sense is they will be able to keep him on the reservation. So it will be a staight party line vote. This will piss off the Republicans and Independents who strongly oppose this bill on the merits and the manner in which it was enacted. They now see Obama for what he really is including the bribes and the extortion. The disaster is coming I am afraid. The Congressmen who succumb will not only lose but will be remembered as traitors by their constituents. When the chips were down they sold their country down the river, and won’t that give them a fine story to tell their children.
———————————————————-
Behind closed doors, the Obama Administration, House and Senate Democrat leaders are cutting a secret deal on ObamaCare. They have come up with a way to pass the Senate version of ObamaCare in the House without any House members having to vote directly on the bill. Now The Hill is reporting that the House and Senate Parliamentarians are helping to advise Democrats on how to pass ObamaCare. When will the self proclaimed most ethical Congress in history start acting ethical and honest? This 111th Congress has proven, to date, to be the most secretive, non-transparent and devious Congress in recent history.

I explained in a blog on The Foundry yesterday the unethical procedure being used to pass ObamaCare:

House members have come up with a unique way to structure a vote that attempts to avoid the House voting on legislation before it goes to the President. First, the House Budget Committee will report out a reconciliation bill. It is unclear as to whether the Stupak Amendment will be added. This reconciliation measure would be reported for consideration by the House of Representatives as a whole. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) would then package the Senate passed Obamacare bill and the House reconciliation measure into one measure. The House rules committee will report out a rule that will allow the Senate passed Obamacare bill to pass the House without a vote.

This seems to be a violation of the constitutional requirement of Article 1, Section 7. The Constitution states in part “Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United States.” The House will avoid a direct vote on the Senate passed ObamaCare by passing a self-executing rule that deems ObamaCare to be passed, if the House approves the rule setting up debate on ObamaCare. Under the rule if the reconciliation measure passes, then the Senate passed ObamaCare bill will be deemed to have passed the House without a vote.

There is precedent in the House for self-executing rules. In 2007, the House to pass a self-executing rule during the debate on a War Supplemental. Also, during the budget process over the past few years, the House has inserted language into the annual budget resolutions that ”deems” as passed a debt limit increase. This type of rule allows the debt limit to pass the House without a vote and as similar rule would allow teh Senate version of ObamaCare to pass without a vote.

Late last night, The Hill reported that “Democrats Nearing Deal on Reconciliation”:

House and Senate Democratic leaders and White House officials were optimistic Wednesday evening that they were nearing a deal on a reconciliation package that would smooth the way for them to finally complete health care reform. Congressional leaders and senior administration officials met in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office late in the day to hammer out a deal on reconciliation, meant to act as a sidecar of adjustments to the original $871 billion Senate-passed health care reform bill.

This meeting was not transparent and not open to the public. Pelosi was behind closed doors in order to cut a deal on a reconciliation measure that the House may consider in the next week or two. Yet again, Democrat leaders have used a closed door secret procedure to craft legislation to impose on Americans.

House Democratic leaders will walk their rank and file through portions of the package in a Thursday morning meeting, a leadership aide said.

This means that only Democrat elites have been part of this negotiation. Not until later today will the House Democrat caucus be allowed to see the reconciliation measure. Republicans need not apply, because they will not be allowed to see the reconciliation measure, until Democrats say so. And for your average American who will have to live under this new health care government run regime, you are not allowed to participate in the legislative process at all.

Reid declined to talk specifics as he exited the meeting. But he sounded optimistic that Democratic leaders were on the verge of a deal on the reconciliation package. “We are making progress. A lot of decisions were made,” Reid said. “I really do believe that the goal we’ve been seeking for such a long time — health care reform — is going to be done. We don’t have it all worked out, but we made a lot of progress.” Reid refused to speculate on a deadline for reaching a deal. President Barack Obama has said he’d like Congress to get health care done this month, and lawmakers are set to head out on a two-week recess beginning March 26.

This story in The Hill indicates that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is involved in the negotiations. We know that no Republican Senators were allowed to participate in this negotiation. There is a big shocker at the end of this story in The Hill.

Sources said the House and Senate Parliamentarians also attended the meeting to advise on reconciliation rules.

Stop the press! If this report is true, this could be a major scandal for the House and Senate Parliamentarians. They are supposed to be dispassionate umpires. Any appearance of the Parliamentarian gaming the system to aid one side to beat the rules should be denounced by all sides.

This was a very political and partisan strategy meeting with representatives of the White House, Democrat Speaker Pelosi and Democrat Leader Reid. Even if these Parliamentarians were not cheating the system by giving Democrats tips on how to bend the rules, the secrecy of the meeting should have been reason enough for the Senate Parliamentarian and his House counterpart to run for the exit. If Republicans lose every procedural objection during the reconcilation debate, they have a strong argument that the parliamentarians should recuse themselves from this proceeding because of a strong appearance of impropriety.

I never intend to give up. I owe. Nevermind what I owe my children and grandchild, I owe my parents and grandparents; I owe Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and the embattled farmers at the bridge in Concord, their wifes, mothers and sisters. If we let it go, it is gone! That is all there is to it.

We face the same ancient enemy the colonial farmers and founding fathers faced, it just embodied differently. It used to prance around in tights, wearing wigs, pinching snuff and saying we have royal blood and you are common. It used to say: don’t dare kill that rabbit to feed your starving children, even though every member of my family weighs over 200 pounds, but it knows better now, or for now. Will our grandchildren face a day when they try to throw off a yoke of oppression which uses today’s unheard of technology rather than muskets and sailing ships?

We can take over the House of Representatives and never give it back, it will take a lot of work but no one will face the risks our Founding Farmers faced. We need to try to out think the ancient enemy. We know there is no difference between either major political party and they have all the money they need. A people’s candidate can never compete with them, on that basis we are sunk. How can we elect someone with no money and no ties to money? We have to enlist a majority of people in every Congressional district and convince them to vote for a candidate picked from their mists by lottery a few days before the deadline to file. Everyone would have a chance and that would be appealing. We need to set up an infrastructure to be adopted in each district so that everyone knows who ever is elected will not stand-alone or act alone. Then two years later, another lottery.

We could try to make a few, what would you call them, planks –

1. Paper trails when voting, I would even like a voting system with two separate counting paths, besides a slip you keep for your own records. We can go anywhere in the world and get money from a ATM the only reason voting is so ill managed is because some people want it that way.

2. Secure our borders – even if we have to do what Ross Perot said – bring home our standing army in europe and make them stand shoulder to shoulder across the southern border. I hate to say it, but I will, round them up and send them home to fight for their own land and people. Google Joe Hill, look at his unbelievably handsome face, read how when he faced a firing squad in Utah and asked is he had any last words he said “yeah, Fire”. Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, b:October 7, 1879, Gävle, Sweden, d:November 19, 1915 (aged 36), Utah. Cause of death: execution by firing squad. There are men around today who delude themselves and try to delude us in to believing they have that kind of strength and courage, but as admin would say they are only boobs and fools.

3. Outlaw earmarks.

4. Rescind the anti trust exemption for insurance companies.

5. In 1860 our grandparents declared “persons are not property” and faught to estabolish that fact. Today we need to declare “properies are not persons”. Perhaps we need a consitutional amendment.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
…

Spirit, that made those heroes dare,
To die, and leave their children free,…
____________________________________________

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me. Says I “But Joe, you’re ten years dead”
“I never died” said he, “I never died” said he.

HA! The sleeveless one first calls her Senator Clinton and then says “I almost said President Clinton”.
——————

Last year, she said “I love saying that” after calling her Secretary Clinton (I remember because I wrote a post on it). The sleeveless one is a classless nincompoop. She thinks she is flattering Hillary but does not have the sophistication to know not to go there.

Just when you think you understand what is going on you get this. The reason for the confusion is there is zero transparency in this administration. Also, Obama is a liar. I wonder if the fools who voted for Obama understand that now. Their plan, as I understand it, and perhaps I do not understand it, but the plan is to pass the Senate Bill, so there is no difference between the bills, thus no need for reconciliation, and then send that plan directly to the Fraud’s desk where he will sign it and issue his own signing statement giving it the broadest possible interpretation well beyond anything which even the corrupted legislators intended.

But if they modify the Senate bill to accommodate people like Stupak then they must send the revised bill back to the Senate for another vote. In turn, that introduces a new calculus of risks. Therefore, one of the central issue the parliamentarians are advising them on is how much change constitutes a material modification so that it must be sent to the senate for another vote as opposed to the White House for signature. The parallel strategy is to bribe, extort and/or destroy any democrat in the House who stands in their path and supports the will American people who oppose this bill by an 80% margin.

ARTICLECOMMENTS (288)Updated March 10, 2010
Senate Health Care Bill Dead on Arrival, Pro-Life House Democrats Say
By Carl Cameron – FOXNews.com
The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed

The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed.

Seven new no votes would be enough to kill the Senate bill, and several more fence-sitting lawmakers are under pressure from both sides of the aisle.

Foremost among the seven new no votes is Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., whose anti-abortion amendment to the House version of the legislation got the bill passed in that chamber last year.

But because the Senate and House Democratic leaders weren’t able to agree on joint legislation before losing their supermajority in the Senate this year, they have few options other than getting the House to pass the Senate bill and then making changes to the law through a separate budget reconciliation bill that could pass with simple majorities.

The Senate bill, however, doesn’t contain the same language as the Stupak amendment, which explicitly prohibits federal funding of abortion in any of the reform measures intended to expand health care coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.

The House bill passed by a slim majority last year. In addition to Stupak, Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois has gone on the record as changing his vote to no if asked to pass the Senate bill, which some argue doesn’t do enough to forbid tax-funded abortions. “Protecting the sanctity of life is a matter of principle,” Lipinski said.

Other Democratic representatives who voted yes on the House bill but are on record as opposing the Senate bill are James Oberstar of Minnesota, Kathy Dahlkemper of Pennsylvania, Steve Driehaus of Ohio and Marion Berry of Arkansas.

Rep. Joe Donnelly of Indiana is the latest to join them, and Stupak said there may be more.

“Unless the language changes, there’s at least 12 Democrats who have said they could not vote for health care unless we keep the current law, which says no public funding for abortion,” Stupak told Fox News.

Others who are potential new no votes are Reps. Brad Ellsworth Indiana, Jerry Costello of Illinois, Charlie Wilson and Tim Ryan of Ohio, Sanford Bishop of Georgia and Richard Neal of Massachusetts.

The House bill contains a ban on tax-funded abortion, which has been the law of the land for more than 30 years.

The Senate bill is a big change, say critics. It would require women to have a separate private insurance policy if they want abortion coverage, but contains no explicit ban on tax-funded abortion as the House bill does.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Democrats’ lead pro-choice negotiator, is noncommittal about any changes that would be made to the Senate bill.

“They’d like to change it, that may be changed, but it may have to be changed at some future time. That’s been my view but nothing has been resolved,” he said.

The health care legislation passed the House last year on a 220-215 vote. But since then, four “yes” votes from Democrats have departed: Reps. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii and Robert Wexler of Florida resigned. Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania died last month and Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama switched parties and said he will not support the bill.

Former Democratic Rep. Eric Massa of New York, who voted against the legislation last year, resigned this week.

That means passage of the Senate bill now requires a 216-vote threshold.

“I would not vote for it,” Donnelly told the Rochester Sentinel on Tuesday. “From my reading of it, it does permit federal funding for abortion related services, in the Senate bill as it stands today, and so that is a fatal flaw in my opinion.”

An unnamed Democrat told Fox News that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “smart enough to realize” that without the Stupak Amendment in November, “the bill fails.”

I too have not gone any where and have no plans to bow out any time soon 🙂

I have been busy with things here at home since I was away from my family for 8 months
taking care of my mom until she passed away. so i am just on a “winter break”
and am ready able and willing to fight on when i hear the call 🙂
_________________________

I wish that it were that I was not depressed about the current state of affairs.
My entire adult life I have attempted to be active and informed with politics. Part of my identity was Democrat and I wore it proudly.
To those who are not depressed with what is today I am with envy. I lost something I believed in. Personally I listened to the anointed one’s last publicity gimmick and think that I realized the dimocratric party is beyond repair. I accept the death of something I held dearly but that does not negate but rather inspires my righteous indignation.
Yet I gotta feel saddened by my tremendous loss.

Betty–the fact that Hillary’s friend Lynn Rothchlde went on one of the morning shows and reminded voters that Obama was a mistake and we could have had Hillary should give you some encouragement. Notice how FOX calls here a McCain supporter. That is disgusting. She was and is a Hillary supporter. Her support for McCain was simply a noble effort on her part to save the country from the disaster this dictator is imposing on our nation. That has nothing to do with party label. It is patriotism.

I completely support Hillary. I also support Sarah. I also support Tea Party activists.

Please stop denigrating Tea Party activists. I am one of them. If not for them, HC and C&T and Obama’s other bs would have already taken over this country. I haul my Hillary for President sign to the rallies, and there are plenty of supporters.

Our Gal never slows down.In yesterday.s appearance with MO at the presentations she was all Presidential and the leader.MO smiles momentarily then that look of scorn rises to a look of contempt.MO was gracious with Hillary but was truly the 2nd banana.The awardees hugged and kissed Hillary but MO got the nod or half a hug.Very telling event.Makes me wonder if MO slipped Hillary the key to the Whitehouse door?

11:05 a.m. Secretary Clinton delivers Remarks to the Press on the Release of the 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, at the Department of State.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE)

2:40 p.m. Secretary Clinton attends the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Meeting of Working Group Coordinators with Under Secretary Burns, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

3:00 p.m. Secretary Clinton meets with Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS CAMPBELL

ON FOREIGN TRAVEL

PRESS BRIEFING SCHEDULE

10:15 a.m. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer and International Women of Courage Awardees brief the Press about events connected with International Women’s Day. This Briefing is On Camera and On the Record in the Press Briefing Room, at the Department of State. For more information, click here.

11:05 a.m. Secretary Clinton delivers remarks to the Press on the Release of the 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner responds to reporters’ questions following Secretary Clinton’s remarks. This Briefing is On Camera and On the Record in the Press Briefing

The thoought that Obama should be offered President of UN or any other job to be enticed to resign is repulsive to me and stands for everything we have been arguing against. There is no merit to give him any job. He is a do nothing, inept fraud.

I am not depressed.
Everyday I do something to help expose The Fraud and the Dimocrats.
Everyday I urge voters not to listen to what candidates say but to study what they do.
Everyday, I do something to help someone appreciate Hillary a little more.
This saves me from being depressed no matter how disgusting the political scene is.
Positive actions make us strong.

I am just one lil ole grape, but there are bunches like me.
Positive actions make us strong.
We are not depressed.

To those not depressed
May I ask how can you not be offended and dismayed by what has happened to your country , to your party to your identity over the last three years.??????????
You can be DEPRESSED AND FEEL RIGHTEOUS ANGER AT the same time!!!

Carol
March 11th, 2010 at 10:55 am
The thoought that Obama should be offered President of UN or any other job to be enticed to resign is repulsive to me and stands for everything we have been arguing against. There is no merit to give him any job. He is a do nothing, inept fraud.
———————————
You are right. It is repulsive to me as well. It says in effect crime pays.

But here is the problem.

There is no accountability in the system. Big money controls everything.

He has the levers of power. Big media is omnipotent. And, the republicans are impotent.

So we have got to come up with an exit strategy.

One that makes him and his big media whores look good. We can distract our children with the birds and the bees.

Jail would be a good place for him. Unfortunately the jails today are over crowded.

So why not kick him upstairs to a venue where he can just run his mouth. And nobody listens to him.

Since he is lazy this might well entice him to do a Roberto Duran, hold up his gloves and say to a second term: no mas.

“May I ask how can you not be offended and dismayed by what has happened to your country , to your party to your identity over the last three years.??????????
You can be DEPRESSED AND FEEL RIGHTEOUS ANGER AT the same time!!!”
=================================
I feel bouts of anger and depression now and then, too, of course, but, honestly, I never found strength to live through adversity by sucking on despair or anger of any kind. What fires my energy and creativity, my zest for living is doing what I can to make things better. Maybe that’s not your cuppa tea, but that’s how I get my kicks.

March 10, 2010
What Happened to Obama’s Middle Path on Health Reform?
By Michael Gerson

WASHINGTON — Whatever the legislative fate of health reform — now in the hands of a few besieged House Democrats — the health reformers have failed in their argument. Their proposal has divided Democrats while uniting Republicans, returned American politics to well-worn ideological ruts, employed legislative tactics that smack of corruption, squandered the president’s public standing, lowered public regard for Congress to French revolutionary levels, sucked the oxygen from other agenda items, re-engaged the abortion battle, produced freaks and prodigies of nature such as a Republican senator from Massachusetts, raised questions about the continued governability of America and caused the White House chief of staff to distance himself from the president’s ambitions.

It is quite an accomplishment. For the president, it must also be quite a shock, because he thought he was taking a reasonable, middle path on health reform.

At the start of this process, many Democrats preferred a single-payer health system — essentially, Medicare for everyone. Short of this goal, they advocated a public option that would compete with private insurance companies and prove the superiority of government-run care. But President Obama rejected a single-payer approach and signaled early that the public option was expendable.

Obama also rejected the one, genuinely bipartisan health reform proposal — made by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Bob Bennett, R-Utah — that would have ended employer-based insurance and given individuals a deduction to buy their own coverage from a menu of private insurance options. (Wyden has turned out to be the ignored prophet of the health debate. “If you … just pound it through on a partisan vote,” he said last June, “you have people practically as soon as the ink is dry looking to have it repealed.”)

Instead, the president chose the current complex, regulatory approach to reform, precisely because it seemed less radical and disruptive than the other options. It was patterned in part on health reforms in Massachusetts signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, thereby applying at least a veneer of bipartisanship.

So what went wrong? Some analysts blame structural factors, particularly the growth in partisanship. It is true that the Republican caucus in Congress has become more homogeneous in its conservatism. But it is also true that Obama is advocating a serious expansion in the role of government at a moment when skepticism of government is widespread. His health reform plan may have seemed moderate on the congressional ideological spectrum. But the creation of a new middle-class entitlement can’t be considered moderate in the context of the times when even previous entitlement commitments seem unsustainable. And it has not helped that the Massachusetts model of health reform has resulted in unchecked cost increases, requiring higher taxes and benefit cuts. These financial concerns not only unify Republicans of every ideological stripe, they reach into the right of the Democratic coalition.

In fact, these structural obstacles were increased by a major strategic miscalculation. Obama clearly believed that the economic crisis was fully fungible — that a turn to government activism in one policy area would translate into support in other areas. So he attempted a rhetorical sleight of hand, arguing that economic recovery required health reform and a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions. Few bought it. To the contrary, the massive — and, in my view, necessary — bank bailout only increased public skepticism about government and congressional concerns about spending.

The final reason for Obama’s failed argument on health reform is neither structural nor strategic. It is psychological. As the evidence mounted that the body politic was rejecting Obama’s health system transplant, Obama faced a choice about the nature of his presidency. He could retreat toward incrementalism or insist on transformation. Obama had previewed his impatience with incrementalism during the campaign. Similar to his predecessor, George W. Bush, Obama turned hard against the Clinton model. “I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America,” he said, “in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it.”

In retrospect, Obama’s greatest achievement during the 2008 campaign was to combine soothing reassurance with a message of transformational change in a single political persona. Governing, however, has required a choice between reassurance and transformation.

Because Obama has chosen liberal transformation, the political outcomes are now limited: He can appear radical in victory or weak in defeat. Given his health reform decisions, it is no longer possible for Obama to be a president both strong and unifying.

President Barack Obama declared on Wednesday the “time for talk is over” and urged the U.S. Congress to vote on healthcare as his health secretary directly challenged insurers to forgo profits to make coverage more affordable.
&&&&&&

Visiting America’s heartland, Obama tried to rally support for his healthcare legislation among wavering Democrats. He urged them to set aside their worries about a political backlash and support the legislation.

“Folks in Washington, they like to talk. So Washington is doing right now what Washington does,” he told a crowd at a high school in St. Charles, Missouri. “They’re speculating breathlessly day or night. Every columnist. Every pundit. Every talking head. Is this proposal going to help the Republicans or is this proposal going to help the Democrats?”

“The time to talk is over. It’s time to vote,” he said. “I don’t know about the politics, but I know that it is the right thing to do and that is why I am fighting so hard to get it done.”

His campaign-style visit was part of a final push to pass an overhaul of the $2.5 trillion healthcare system.

Whether the bill passes or fails, the healthcare debate is likely to be a major issue in the November elections that could shift the balance of power in Congress now dominated by Democrats.

As Obama’s motorcade made its way toward the speech venue, hundreds of protesters from both sides lined the streets waving placards that said, “Healthcare for all,” “Kill the bill,” “Republicans for healthcare reform” and “Say no to socialism.”

Obama insisted his plan would rein in profit-hungry health companies. Trying to build support for the bill, he and his fellow Democrats have accused the health insurance industry of putting profits before the interests of patients.

Great post Big Pink. I have lurked at your site for the past year and normally blog at one of the “depressed” PUMA sites 🙂
Your post was uplifting and I didn’t realize your site has been in battle for so long.
Good to see the big picture.
Keep up the great work and I hope to blog here more often.
By the way, what do we call the admin of the blog, is Big Pink okay? 🙂

I’m not depressed because this country has been through other bad things and came out okay. We went through the disastrous presidencies of Pierce and Buchanan, which led directly to the Civil War, Lincoln’s assassination and then festival of corruption that followed from that. We went through the labor battles of the late 19th and early 20th century which arose from the greed of the guilded age and landed with FDR in charge and Lewis crying out, “Your president wants you to join a union!” We’ll get through this. And maybe we’ll even have a president who wants us to join a union again. 🙂

Michael Gerson sees only the obvious. The failure of leadership is obvious. What is not obvious to him, apparently is the megalomaniacal pursuit of a bill opposed by 80% of the people, the clear implication that their wishes count for nothing, the sweetheart deal with big business, and the Chicago thug methods used to bludgeon down the opposition and ignore all dissenting opinion. These are the ways of a dictator. He is to blame for this debacle. There is no way to put lipstick on the Obama Pig. If the American People who lacked common sense in 2008 think this is business as usual then they will blame congress not him. Big media will encourage that result. Rove is telling us this betrayal “could” make Obama vulnerable in 2012. He is reluctant to stake out the obvious position partly because he is peddling a book and wants to be seen as fair. Looks can be deceiving however. In politics there really is such a thing as revenge. If you show the electorate that you believe they are irrelevant, they will find a way to make you irrelevant the first chance they get.

Their governor Joe Mansion (nee Mancini) is reputed to be a mafia guy. That was told to me by someone who practices law in that state. I cannot vouch for it myself, but I would not be surprised. He promised to endorse whoever won West Virginia, and then reneged. Yea, Byrd would fold like a cheap watch. To paraphrase an early Naval hero of the War of 1812: My party. May it always be right. But right or wrong my party. In other words, the welfare of the country is an afterthought or as it is as it is with Barack–utterly irrelevant.

UPDATE: The Daily Caller reports that the House GOP will introduce a privileged resolution calling on the Ethics Committee to investigate Pelosi’s and Hoyer’s handling of the Massa allegations. Specifically, the resolution calls on the committee to find out what the Democratic leadserhip knew about Massa, when they knew it, and what they did – or didn’t do – about it.

Good for the House GOP. This is exactly what Democrats would have done had the roles been reversed. And I think it’s safe to say now that this action officially makes the Massa allegations a scandal and a campaign issue. As they should be.

UPDATE 2: The GOP resolution passed the House on a vote of 402-2. No Democrats voted against the resolution, which means shenanigans are afoot. It is now up to the House GOP to keep Democrats honest on this.

The Eric Massa sideshow just became a full-fledged election year scandal aimed like a dagger directly at the Democrats’ House majority. Numerous press outlets are now reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was informed in October of last year about the former New York representative’s odd behavior with male subordinates.

Joe Racalto, Massa’s chief of staff, was uneasy that Massa, 50, was living with several young, unmarried male staffers and using sexually explicit language with them, one source said. But what finally prompted him to call Pelosi’s director of member services, the source said, was a lunch date that Massa made with a congressional aide in his 20s who worked in the office of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

According to a person briefed on the call, Racalto was concerned that the lunch followed a pattern by Massa — who is married and has two children — of trying to spend time alone with young gay men with no ostensible work purpose. Racalto, according to this person, also alerted Frank’s chief of staff. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the matter.

Last week, Pelosi said the she first heard of concerns about Massa’s behavior in early March. Pelosi said her staff did not inform her of every rumor about members of Congress. But that explanation is no longer operative, since this was not a rumor that her staff picked up. It was a plea for intervention by none other than the member’s chief of staff, his highest ranking aide.

Pelosi’s “hear no evil” act is now about as believable as her pledge to run the “most ethical Congress in history.” She knew, and chose to do nothing.

Once upon a time, Pelosi was harshly critical of a House leadership which she said should have known about former congressman Mark Foley’s interactions with young male House pages.

“The children who work as Pages in the Congress are Members’ special trust. Statements by the Republican Leadership indicate that they violated this trust when they were made aware of the internet stalking of an underage Page by Mr. Foley and covered it up for six months to a year.

Many junior staffers in congressional offices are young people, fresh out of college. Although they are not children, they are deserving of protection from sex starved congressmen who seek to use their high position to score a bit more than campaign contributions.

Yet Pelosi did nothing. For six months she and her office looked the other way as Massa shared a house with five staffers and abused his official position to try and bed young male staffers on his and other members’ staffs. Pelosi’s failure to do anything to stop Massa’s behavior once his Chief of Staff made her office aware of it is unethical and shameful and casts a pall over the entire House.

Republicans are reportedly weighing a call for an investigation into Pelosi’s and Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s actions in handling the Massa allegations. And well they should. There will be charges of “politicization” and cries of “partisanship,” as Hoyer pre-emptively charged on the Sunday shows. But these criticisms should be seen for what they are: baseless attempts to distract from the issue at hand. Namely, the Democrats’ callous disregard for serious and credible allegations of behavior that meets the legal definition of sexual harrassment occurring in the people’s House.

wbboei
March 11th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Rove is telling us this betrayal “could” make Obama vulnerable in 2012. He is reluctant to stake out the obvious position partly because he is peddling a book and wants to be seen as fair.
&&&&

out of health care and out of jobs. I knew it. I told you so. I got so sick to my stomach as I watched forty years of the work of women get washed down the drain by axelrod and emmanuel and dean, richardson kerry and kennedy.
When Oprah, who knows nothing about politics and who never in twenty years did one show on the subject, put the final nail in the coffin of the health care candidate, i was stunned. I lost my faith in everything, including God. I had seen the dismantling of the working class since 1980, and had fought against it so hard, doing everything i could, and using everything at my disposal. I thought, how can an entire generation of feminism die right when the hope for it was at its strongest. I pleaded with friends not to back Obama. I said, but you know Hillary is the health care candidate, and he has not even a plan for any kind of healthcare in his platform or in his campaign! I blogged every day on the subject for about a year.
I knew the phony progressive left was just a trick of Soros and billionaire criminals to take down health care. I knew Obama got more wall street money than any other candidate, and I knew he was a phony too, all the way, as I watched him snicker about Hillary, the woman’s candidate being “likable enough”. I didn’t like her vote on Iraq, but she promised to end the war, and I believed that she would. I knew that she would listen to women, not completely abandon them as Obama has done. I knew that she would listen to working people, before bankers, unlike what Obama has done.
They set her up like they always set up women, and after we do all the groundwork, they take it away, and then they divide the spoils between themselves and their old boy network. Now, it is all coming clear to all the idiots that the wrong person is in the white house. Another George Bush. He has not saved one home from foreclosure nor created one job. He just wants to get down on his knees in front of those republicans and grovel, and HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE TO!
They triangulated race and class AGAIN!! They may have token black people in congress and the senate and the supreme court, and elsewhere, but they have never ever in this history of this country had ONE token poor person in anything.
Class, not race is our real national nightmare. Race and gender are second and third. Damn, so close to single payer and real change, now so far. My God, India has had more women at the top of its government by about 5X than we have.

A slew of poor economic data over the past two weeks suggests that the U.S. economy is headed for a U-shaped recovery–at best–in 2010. The macro news, including data on consumer confidence, home sales, construction and employment, actually suggests a significant downside risk even to the anemic levels of growth which I forecast for H1 (the first half of the year). The U.S. faces continued challenges in H2–particularly as historic levels of fiscal stimulus fade–and appears far too close to the tipping point of a double-dip recession.

This is not the conventional wisdom. Heated debate continues to rage in the U.S. on whether the economic recovery will be V-shaped (with a rapid return to robust growth above potential), U-shaped (slow anemic, subpar, below trend growth for at least the next two years) or W-shaped (a double-dip recession). The V camp includes distinguished research groups and individuals such as Ed Hyman’s ISI, Larry Meyer’s Macroeconomic Advisors, the research group of JP Morgan, Michael Mussa and others.

The U camp includes–among others–Roubini Global Economics, Goldman Sachs’ U.S. economic research group, PIMCO and Ken Rogoff. As early as August 2009 I expressed concern in a Financial Times op-ed about the risk of a double-dip recession, even if my benchmark scenario characterizes the risk of a W as still a low probability event (20% probability) as opposed to a 60% probability for a U-shaped recovery. Others worried about the double-dip risk also include David Rosenberg, Gary Shilling and John Makin.

Ed Hyman and I debated whether the recovery would be U- or V-shaped on a Feb. 22 conference call attended by over 2,200 listeners. Since that call, a slew of new U.S. macro data have come out. They have been almost uniformly poor, if not outright awful. Consumer confidence, based on the Michigan survey, has tanked. On the real estate front, new home sales are collapsing again, existing home sales are also falling sharply and construction activity (both residential and commercial) is sharply down. Durable goods orders are down, and initial claims for unemployment benefits remain stubbornly high (way above the 400,000 mark). Real disposable income for Q4 has been revised downward while real disposable income (before transfers) for January was negative again.

The manufacturing ISM index–while still expanding being above 50–has now fallen a couple of notches, and its production and new orders index levels are falling, too; and global PMIs suggest a loss of momentum in the global economic recovery. Real inventories look unchanged in Q1 relative to Q4; auto sales were at best mediocre; core CPI was falling and core PCE was close to 0%, suggesting anemic demand and economic weakness. Q4 GDP growth was revised upward to 5.9% but most of it (3.9%) was due to inventories; final sales grew at a 1.9% rate while consumption grew at a dismal 1.7% (down from 2.8% in Q3). Q3 growth has been revised from an initial 3.5% to 2.8% to 2.2%, with final sales growing only 1.7%. So, at the time of maximum policy stimulus (H2 of 2009), final sales were growing only at a pathetic 1.8% average rate.

The euro zone debt crisis predisposes Europe to a rising double-dip risk, due to the wave of fiscal austerity sweeping the periphery of the euro zone. Even if the euro zone doesn’t enter a double dip, the growth of domestic demand there will be as or more constrained than in the U.S. This, in turn, will be a drag on the potential for U.S. export growth. The U.S. dollar rally on risk aversion reflects this risk. The U.S. dollar is settling back down, and the threat of a debt crisis is headed off by a stronger Greek fiscal adjustment and potential adjustment package.

But fiscal spending cuts, confidence hits and the looming threat of either rising unemployment or falling wages in the public sector–on top of private sector retrenchment–will remain. A similar retrenchment may well lie ahead in the United Kingdom, given rising fiscal sustainability concerns and the threat of a sterling crisis. Europe then will have great difficulty being a source of demand for U.S. exports and may even provide impetus to faltering global demand growth, contributing to the threat of a wider double dip across high-income countries.

*****
Nouriel Roubini, a professor at the Stern Business School at New York University and chairman of Roubini Global Economics (RGE), writes a weekly column for Forbes.

Everybody in DC, except the really, really rich, shares living quarters. I know of no rule that says that a congressional representative cannot share living quarters with staffers. Nor do I know of a rule that says than reps cannot go to lunch with the staff members of other reps. Nor do I know of any rule that says that they can’t have sex with staff members – god knows, they do it all the time. The fact that Massa may be gay changes nothing.

That article is a drumbeat of homophobia – nothing more. There is no substance there. The only reason that Massa sharing quarters with young men is problematic to the reader is that Massa is being alleged to be gay and the writer is counting on the reader being frightened by his orientation to see something wrong in normal behavior and arrangements. None of those things warrant an investigation – unless someone is homophobic and simply wants to dig around in the private lives of gay people.

The only thing that matters is whether he is punishing people who refuse his advances or groping people – the normal sexual harassment standards. That article was remarkably free of accusations of harassment.

Before anyone gets too warm and fuzzy about Rosanne, (I admit I was starting to), check out some of the other posts she made, I found this when searching for ‘Hillary’ on her site, she knows of PUMAs and here’s what she thinks:

“Admin” will do Shadowfax. Please convey our thanks for “Pink Grenades” to the good people at PUMA P.A.C.
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The pac links to your site quite often, and your post helped many of us that were feeling bleak and circling the drain.
Thank you.

She thinks voting for McCain was bad. A lot of us did. PUMAs were far from united on that. Taggles, of The Confluence, the Widdershins and now Wired Left, posted an apology for having voted for McCain, while never changing her feelings about Obama.

I feel bouts of anger and depression now and then, too,of course, but, honestly, I never found strength to live through adversity by sucking on despair or anger of any kind. What fires my energy and creativity, my zest for living is doing what I can to make things better. Maybe that’s not your cuppa tea, but that’s how I get my kicks.

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Me too- i agree with 99% of your post’s, lil grape. I meant to respond to one of your previous posts that gave us both a giggle- get over yourself already.
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“President of UN or any other job to be enticed to resign is repulsive to me…”

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Righteous indignation is an emotional response that is not conducive or productive to us in our current situation and has never solved a problem. If we are into problem solving I will elaborate on the reasoning behind my proposal’s feasibility.

Obama is technically the CEO of the largest corporation in the world. NBC worked hard and long to find a way to rid themselves of Katie Couric because a public firing was out of the question… bad for ratings. Media Exec’s talked among themselves and CBS became a willing partner for what they thought was a Win-Win situation, offering Couric the number #1 spot as a female anchor of the evening news. She jumped at the chance- and CBS’s ratings have consistently lowered circling the porcelain queen ever since.

The lesson here is: NBC did what it had to do to get rid of Couric killing two birds with one stone. Meaning, just as they thought. Couric would eventually sour the cbs viewing audience and further degrade their ratings, (which did happen) having no one else to blame for her failure except herself. NBC was now free to hire Viera as Lauer’s choice for her replacement. Lauer never hid the hollow sickening flattery he showered on Couric’s legs if he expected her to be in a good mood for the day.

The beauty of my proposal is, after acceptance of the UN position, Obama would have no presidential immunity and may find himself (within a year or so) in a similar downward polling situation and asked to step down or face removal by a no-confidence vote by UN members. World Leaders see Obama as an idiot president and I don’t mean savant. Third World countries do not respect Obama. They kicked sand in his face in Copenhagen.

At best Obama’s removal would come from a lack of production or some other inane reason OR at worst, Chicago Corruption gone Internationally Wild (which would be the draw card for his acceptance. In short GREED) carrying with it criminal consequences.

The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package, senior GOP sources said Thursday.

The Senate Parliamentarian’s Office was responding to questions posed by the Republican leadership. The answers were provided verbally, sources said.

House Democratic leaders have been searching for a way to ensure that any move they make to approve the Senate-passed $871 billion health care reform bill is followed by Senate action on a reconciliation package of adjustments to the original bill. One idea is to have the House and Senate act on reconciliation prior to House action on the Senate’s original health care bill.

Information Republicans say they have received from the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office eliminates that option. House Democratic leaders last week began looking at crafting a legislative rule that would allow the House to approve the Senate health care bill, but not forward it to Obama for his signature until the Senate clears the reconciliation package.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) moved Thursday to put Senate Republicans on the defensive over health care, sending a letter to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in which he dared the GOP to vote against reform.

Reid also defended the Democrats’ use of reconciliation to get a final health care reform bill to the president’s desk, noting that the bulk of health care reform was approved under regular order via the package that cleared the Senate on Christmas Eve. Reid also emphasized that Republicans have used the procedure several times over the years.

However, Reid also promised in the letter that Republicans would have ample opportunity to amend the reconciliation package.

“Reconciliation is designed to deal with budget-related matters, and some have expressed doubt that it could be used for comprehensive health care reform that includes many policies with no budget implications. But the reconciliation bill now under consideration would not be the vehicle for comprehensive reform — that bill already passed outside of reconciliation with 60 votes,” Reid wrote to McConnell.

“Reconciliation will not exclude Republicans from the legislative process. You will continue to have an opportunity to offer amendments and change the shape of the legislation. In addition, at the end of the process, the bill can pass only if it wins a democratic, up-or-down majority vote. If Republicans want to vote against a bill that reduces health care costs, fills the prescription drug ‘donut hole’ for seniors and reduces the deficit, you will have every right to do so,” he said.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are headed to the White House for a meeting on jobs Thursday, and they’ll have a few words to say about how President Barack Obama is doing his.

The 43-member caucus is fighting through one of the most difficult periods in its 39-year history, and some members and aides said they’re getting far too little support from the nation’s first black president — a man they once believed would be their strongest champion.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) told POLITICO that White House officials are “not listening” to black lawmakers.

And Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) said: “While I respect President Obama, delivering victories for his political future should be the least of our worries on Capitol Hill.”

Aides to CBC members said tensions between black lawmakers and the White House have risen in recent months as the caucus has tried to address the extraordinarily high unemployment rate among African-Americans, while navigating a succession of ethical issues — including the ethics committee ruling that cost CBC member Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee last week.

Privately, lawmakers and aides rattle off a series of grievances with the White House — and particularly with chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior aide Valerie Jarrett.

A CBC aide said that Jarrett has canceled lunch plans with the caucus eight times and that her office is slow to return calls and pays more attention to longtime supporters than to senior CBC members.

Most of the Congressional Black Caucus supported Hillary but then they were thugged (recall John Lewis) and dropped Hillary. Many in the black “leadership” allowed the “racist” lies against Bill and Hillary to go unchallenged. Perhaps it was fear. The reasons are irrelevant at this point. The CBC is going to learn the lesson: you reap what you sow.

Privately, lawmakers and aides rattle off a series of grievances with the White House — and particularly with chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior aide Valerie Jarrett.

A CBC aide said that Jarrett has canceled lunch plans with the caucus eight times and that her office is slow to return calls and pays more attention to longtime supporters than to senior CBC members.
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Brazile is looking like a muted volcano. I don’t know how much longer she can keep up a brave face supporting Obama when the CBC constituency realizes Obama is not all that black afterall.

Brazile is looking like a muted volcano. I don’t know how much longer she can keep up a brave face supporting Obama when the CBC constituency realizes Obama is not all that black afterall.
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Yep. She sold ’em a bill of goods. She will have to go to work officially for Karl Rove.

Brazile is looking like a muted volcano. I don’t know how much longer she can keep up a brave face supporting Obama when the CBC constituency realizes Obama is not all that black afterall.
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Yep. She sold ‘em a bill of goods. She will have to go to work officially for Karl Rove.

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Heh, didn’t she have a special relationship with Rove before the primary?

IMHO
Roseanne Barr is as awful as every other celebrity who shoots their mouth off at every chance to get press.

Last week the domestic goddess called out Marie Osmond to distance herself and disown the morman religion after her son’s suicide, claiming it was because he was gay that he took his own life.
Why would any thinking person act in such a way? Grossly inappropriate.

India as usual, finds an unorthodox solution to an orthodox problem (pun intended):

To counter a disturbing trend of right-wing Hindu thugs beating up women going to pubs or wearing clothes they don’t approve of, Bangalore-based Alternative Law Forum (ALF) has launched a satirical campaign to support India’s “Pubgoing Loose and Forward Women”.

The Pink Chaddi Campaign asks women to send pink chaddis (underwear) to the ALF to forward to one of the bullying organisations, the Shri Ram Sene, which has threatened to attack couples found celebrating Valentine’s Day.

In comparing videos the other day, the difference between Brazile’s arrogance during the campaign and the present day was quite remarkable.. During the campaign she looked vibrant, resolved topped off with a haughty hairdo. As of now, she looks like a shipwreck without an Oprah. As to her soul, she lost it like everyone else has that helped steal the election for Obama. After realizing the WELCOME mat has been withdrawn from the stoop because her services are no longer needed. I’d say, Brazile is in a state of disbelief her Mess-iah has hung her out to dry. A fitting end for an unconscionable human being who sold her soul for a change.

Please put this date on your calendar and click on “we invite you to join us” or “save the date” to let us know you will attend. Details and formal invitation will follow shortly.

Honoring Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild :

The New Agenda has some exciting news to report and we invite you to join us!

We will be HONORING Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild , who has been an inspirational force in the formation and growth of our organization, on Thursday, May 6th, 2010.

We met Lynn in May 2008 as she courageously led the first meeting of Together4US, a group of prominent Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters who met to continue HRC’s legacy.

Many refer to that first meeting, held at a home in Pound Ridge , NY as “The Second Seneca Falls.” It was with Lynn ’s inspiration that in August 2008 we formed an offshoot of Together4US to focus solely on women’s issues. That organization, The New Agenda, was based on Lynn ’s vision: women’s issue and country ahead of political party.

As The New Agenda took off to become a national organization, Lynn has stayed closely connected with us and helped us carve our ever evolving path. Like Lynn , The New Agenda has stayed true to its vision of honoring Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton by standing up for women in this country who often have no voice. As well, The New Agenda has honored the vow made at our first meeting: never to be silent again while a women leader was subjected to sexism.

The May 6th event will be The New Agenda Inc.’s (our 501c4) first major event, and so it is only appropriate that we honor a woman who has stood with us throughout. Lynn , like our organization, always puts women and country first. And while most of Secretary Clinton’s supporters went back to their every day lives, Lynn remains one of the few outspoken advocates for women and country.

Monica Conyers, the wife of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), was sentenced to 37 months in prison for taking bribes, the Detroit News reports.

She “is the only Detroit elected official convicted so far in a long-running corruption investigation that has netted 10 guilty pleas.”

The Detroit Free Press notes that “after months of silence,” the “combative and unpredictable” Conyers “erupted during her sentencing in federal court Wednesday: first, repeatedly asking to withdraw her guilty plea, then exclaiming she wasn’t going to jail for something she didn’t do.”

However, a plea document Conyers signed last summer said she “waives any right to appeal her conviction or sentence” as long as she was sentenced her to five years or less.